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Jonathan Neufeld
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Contact Information
Email: jonathan.a.neufeld@vanderbilt.edu
Office: 111 Furman Hall
Phone: 615-343-8670
Fax: (615) 343-7259
Degrees
Ph. D., Columbia University (2005), Philosophy
M.A., King's College, University of London (1994), Philosophy
B.A., University of Minnesota (1993), Political Science
Research Area
Dr. Neufeld’s research interests are in Philosophy of Music, Aesthetics, Political Philosophy, and Philosophy of Law. He is particularly interested in problems surrounding performance and interpretation.
Current Research
He currently working on two books. First, Critical Performances: Authority and Legitimacy in Music claims that performance in the western classical music tradition is best understood as an authoritative and critical contribution to a public sphere. By drawing on and developing concepts from philosophy of law and political philosophy, he hopes to deal more fruitfully with what he takes to be some of the most influential and interesting aspects of contemporary musical performance. The book pursues its philosophical arguments by working through a number of exemplary cases from recent performance practice that cannot be satisfactorily accounted for by much of contemporary philosophy of music. Second, Listeners, Critics and Judges: Performance and Deliberation in the Musical Public Sphere begins by analyzing a striking parallel between constitutional legal interpretation and the performative interpretation of musical works in the western classical tradition. Investigation of the analogies and disanalogies between the two practices reveals a variety of historical and philosophical relationships between the liberal political public sphere and performance practice in western classical music.
Recent Courses
Dr. Neufeld has led graduate seminars entitled "Art and the Public Sphere," and "Absolute Music." In the Spring of 2008, he will lead a seminar on Adorno's philosophy of music.
Publications
- Review of Matthew Kieran, Revealing Art, New York: Routledge, 2005. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2006)
- Review of David Goldblatt's Art and Ventriloquism, New York: Routledge, 2006. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 65 No. 2 (Spring 2007).
- Review of Hilde Hein's Public Art: Thinking Museums Differently, New York: Altamira, 2006. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol 65 No. 4 (Winter 2007).
- "The Liberal Limits of Legitimate Listening," under review.
- "Critical Performances," under review.
- "Formalism and Political Performance," under review.
Other Activities
- In 2007 Dr. Neufeld co-organized the First Annual Online Conference for Aesthetics: Arthur Danto's Transfiguration of the Commonplace: 25 Years Later.
- Dr. Neufeld is the classical music reviewer of for the Nashville Tennessean.
